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Both houses of Congress voted overwhelmingly to maintain the George W. Bush tax cuts for about 98% of the American people. I won't reiterate the implications that every other pundit will relate. Fact is that so much more was at stake than "just" the fiscal cliff -- namely, the question of whether or not Congress could still be a viable, problem-solving body or whether it was doomed to irrelevance.

Americans certainly know intuitively when the economy is bad or getting better or worse. They also pay their own bills and know what happens when others -- neighbors, friends, families or even their government -- cannot. But in this instance, the very definition and parameters of this fiscal cliff have been known for months and were actually defined by the very people who were not able to act. Congress' job approval averages 18%, more than double the 7% record low it achieved. But this new average is bolstered by a few partisans only -- the very people who will not approve compromises and only debate anonymously on tweets and blogs.

I was asked by BBC whether the impasse over the fiscal cliff was the product of the Founding Fathers institutionalization of checks and balances. I reminded them that our founders hated partisanship and special interests -- "factions" in the words of James Madison. No, I told BBC World News, this is a recent evolution and more the product of gerrymandered safe, and more partisan districts. Congress, up until just a couple of hours ago, seemed to have lost its sense of the national interest. Congress was set up to debate, deliberate, and compromise-- not to define, then dig in, play to the lowest common denominators, then punt.

In terms of the politics of all this, the polls were clear for weeks: the GOP would be blamed more for the lack of a deal. This was a reality that ultimately Speaker John Boehner and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell realized. At the last minute, when the ambitious conservative wing of the House GOP -- led by Eric Kantor and Paul Ryan -- indicated they needed a bill with spending cuts, it was the more seasoned leaders who read the tea leaves, realized that such a bill would never pass, and would only gummy up the works. The GOP was checkmated. It simply had to prove that it could do something, anything.

Frankly, in a way this reminds me of FDR and his meetings with key advisors after his 1932 election. He told them that he was not sure what he would do about the economy of the Great Depression, but famously said he needed to "try something, anything." We are in pretty much the same situation. Surely, this first bill does not address necessary spending cuts. But is this the time to take billions of dollars out of the economy, eliminate government jobs when the unemployment rate is sliding? These are complicated but solutions are not best derived by ideological one-side-fits-all solutions. Both parties in Congress needed to show that they could talk, work together, and move on to the next crisis.

At the last minute, they did just that. And their ultimate reward: they saved their own butts.